The invention relates to a rubber sleeve for a printing press. In addition, the invention relates to a method for producing a rubber sleeve for a printing press.
In principle, two methods for producing a rubber sleeve for a printing press are known from practice.
According to a first method for producing a rubber sleeve known from practice, such as, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,798, a rigid support sleeve made of metal or a composite material and which is closed or continuous in the circumferential direction is made available, wherein additional continuous layers of the rubber sleeve are applied successively to this support sleeve. This is accomplished preferably in a so-called coating method.
According to a second method for producing a rubber sleeve known from practice, such as, for example, described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,351,615 and 6,484,632, a rigid support sleeve made of metal or a composite material and which is closed or continuous in the circumferential direction and in addition a blanket with at least a two-layer structure as a semi-finished product are also made available, wherein a pre-cut part of the blanket is wrapped around the rigid support sleeve and firmly connected to the rigid support sleeve. In the process, butting edges of the blanket must be connected to each other in order to prevent the penetration of solutions and/or ink, wherein, for this purpose, according to the prior art, a sealing material is introduced flush with the surface of the blanket in an air gap embodied between the butting edges, and wherein the blanket and the sealing material are finished by grinding. However, the region of the sealing material continues to represent, in terms of printing, a malfunction location or an interruption so that continuous printing is not possible there. These types of rubber sleeves have a limited service life because they are not sufficiently able to absorb the stresses occurring in operation.
Starting herefrom, the present invention is based on the objective of creating a novel rubber sleeve as well as a novel method for producing the same.
According to the invention, the sealing material is introduced in the air gap embodied between the butting edges while forming a channel. The channel also forms an air gap in the process, which essentially interrupts the outer printing layer at least partially, and as the case may be also the inner layers.
The fact that, in the case of the inventive rubber sleeve, the sealing material is introduced in the air gap embodied between the butting edges of the pre-cut blanket part while forming a channel, which allows a considerably longer service life to be realized for a rubber sleeve because the rubber sleeve is better able to absorb the stresses acting on the same during the printing operation. Thus, an inventively embodied rubber sleeve is considerably less susceptible to both mechanical destruction as well as chemical destruction than rubber sleeves known from practice. As a result, the impact zone embodied between the butting edges of the pre-cut blanket section is more resistant to mechanical and chemical stresses, which ultimately results in a significantly longer service life for the rubber sleeve. However, also in the case of this rubber sleeve, continuous pressure that goes beyond the area of the air gap is not possible.
Preferred developments of the invention are yielded from the following description. Without being limited hereto, exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in greater detail on the basis of the drawings.